Toyota Land Cruiser - long-term review

A couple of months ago, Tom Ford boldly claimed that he had the best car in the Top Gear Garage—the Skoda Superb estate. Sorry, Tom, but you're wrong. This is the best car in the Garage. Yes, even better than the DB12, in my humble opinion.

Introducing TG’s Toyota Land Cruiser First Edition—a top-tier, limited-run launch model (only 5,000 units worldwide) that pays tribute to the iconic Land Cruiser 40, with its round headlights and two-tone paintwork. We’ve gone for the sand colour rather than blue, and it looks every bit the off-road legend. Which is a pleasing return to form because the last few generations of the Land Cruiser haven’t been pretty and the likes of Land Rover (Defender), Mercedes (G-wagen) and Jeep have stolen the utilitarian vehicle off this once iconic car.

There appears to be a trend in manufacturers (think Ford Bronco) delving into the archive to regain design credibility. Toyota has got this spot on. The other model available is the Invincible which has the squarer headlights, fewer trim options included and, frankly, just isn't as cool. And besides, TG’s 2024 design of the year was this exact First Edition model. Of course we'd go for this one.

This trim gets leather seats, a JBL sound system, seating for seven, 18in black alloy wheels, a head-up display, skid plates... basically everything you could ever need. Under the bonnet there’s a 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbo diesel from the Hilux developing 201bhp and 369lb ft from 1,600rpm which is as agricultural and noisy as you'd expect, but the initial feeling for me is it’s more than suitable, especially with the eight-speed gearbox. A petrol version is available but not for Europe.

It costs a whopping £82,845, and the few extras you can spec are things like illuminated scuff plates and towbars, the latter being one option we wish we had. It remains to be seen if Toyota will bring in a cooking model to make this car more accessible to a wider audience but at £80k it’s firmly set it sights on the premium end of the SUV market. We’ll be learning over the course of its life if it’s worthy of such a hefty price and if its gigantic size of almost 5m long and 2m high is too much for a daily.

Because it's so cool, I’m expecting the keys to be wrestled off me at the first available opportunity...